History

History

The first of its kind - the Regional Local Food Business Retention and Expansion (BR+E) Project crossed into nine jurisdictions and fostered numerous new partnerships in Eastern Ontario.

The project offered participants a unique opportunity to explore and develop relationships between local government, non-government organizations, local-food businesses, and stakeholders in the local-food movement.

Since the surveys were completed and recommendations developed, each community continues to help local-food producers, processors, and retailers find new markets, identify opportunities to increase revenue, and grow their businesses.

This project demonstrated how a number of jurisdictions can work in partnership to help develop the local-food sector in ways that are specific to each community, while also making progress on a series of common regional goals.

The plans for actions to be undertaken in response to community recommendations included the opening of the Ontario Agri-Food Venture Centre, as well as additional marketing and networking events, and more.